Fridge magnate Tony Hawks hits town

His career has been characterised by the wilfully perverse. When the big offers have landed, Tony Hawks has shrugged his shoulders and looked away. He's had a 'what's the point of doing that?' attitude since Day One.

When the philanthropic comedian could have appeared on regular prime time quiz shows, landed big fat BBC cheques, or become a household name, he's stroked his sturdy chin, contemplated the consequences and then shook his head: "Nah," he's thought, "I'd rather not."

Instead, he's decided to cart a fridge around Ireland, for instance, or track down each member of the Moldovan national football team, so as to challenge them to a game of tennis. Like ultra-inventive Stafford-born funnyman Dave Gorman, his career has been characterised by seemingly foolhardy challenges and brilliantly incisive wit.

When he arrives in Shrewsbury tomorrow for his Random Fun tour, he'll bring his experiences of comedy, international popstardom, celebrity fridge ownership, film production, tennis playing and TV and radio panel fame to the fore.

"Yes," he says. "I've done quite a bit down the years. My life has always been about randomness and fun and people can expect that sort of evening. I'll look back on the strangest and funniest moments. It'll be an evening of stories, songs and silliness."

Hawks, however, may be upstaged. Let's not forget how famous his fridge became. Round Ireland With A Fridge was the story of his absurd quest to hitch round the circumference of Ireland within a month – with a fridge.

He wrote about the experience and his book sold around 800,000 copies. It became a top 10 Sunday Times bestseller in 1998 and was serialised on BBC Radio 4. For six months, it featured on a TV advertising campaign for Harp Irish lager. It became a huge hit in the US and Australia and was translated into Hebrew, Italian, Dutch and German.

Hawks says: "I was in Ireland for the first time and I was getting a lift in a car. We passed an old guy on the side of the road who was hitching with a fridge and it just struck me as very strange. I remember recounting what I'd seen a few weeks later to friends in a pub back home in Brighton and saying that if there was one country where you could hitch with a fridge, it was Ireland. That's what sparked a friend to bet me £100 it couldn't be done."

And so he went from Dublin to Donegal, from Galway to Wexford and Waterford, bringing his adventure to life. DJ Gerry Ryan followed his adventure, broadcasting it to thousands of admiring followers. "Gerry got to hear about it and had me on one morning, Then I started ringing in every day. Pretty soon I was 'the fridge man' and the whole country was offering me lifts."

He wrote about his experiences for six days a week for at least six months and became a huge hit: "It makes people laugh – the Irish response was silly and inspired – and I think it appeals to people's desire to escape from the sometimes mundane aspects of life." It's been turned into a film, starring Ed Byrne, which Hawks likes almost as much as the book.

The fridge may make it to Shrewsbury: "It depends how strong I'm feeling," says Hawks. "The film is at roundirelandwithafridge.com and people seem to love it."

Afterwards, Hawks took another bet: to track down all the members of the national football team of Moldova and beat them at tennis one by one. The resulting book was shortlisted for both the Samuel Johnson Prize (2000) for non-fiction writing and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize (2000).

Hawks says: "At the time I was being asked to do all sorts of things, many of which would have paid me a good income. I mean, when I took off around Ireland, there was no guarantee that anything would come of it. It was an absurd thing to do. But I thought it would be fun and that's why I did it. My career has often been like that. I've chosen to do things that I've thought would be fun, rather than things that might have been obviously successful."

Hawks has, however, accepted a number of offers to rejoin the mainstream. The world's most famous fridgehiker has been a regular guest on many iconic BBC radio programmes including The News Quiz, Just a Minute, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue and The Unbelievable Truth and he also presented his own series on Radio 4, Tony Hawks' Lost Weekends.

But there's been a method to his madness, a point to the posturing. Take his book about playing Moldovans at tennis, for instance. As well as selling more than 100,000 copies, he also launched a campaign to raise £100,000 for a Moldovan Child Care Centre.

"That was – until I decided to do something about it. I knew that I was going to return to Britain and write a book about my experiences and it seemed wrong to me that I should profit form this without giving anything back.

"One night, as I lay in bed, contemplating the plight of so many of the people, I decided that I would donate half the royalties from the book to a trust fund for Moldova. Thankfully the book sold well enough for us to be able to do something constructive with the money."

And so to Shropshire. Fans will be kept in suspense until the last minute on the big question. "You wouldn't expect me to spoil the surprise, would you?" says Hawks. No, of course not, his career has been built on surprises.